Folk music is like patchouli. You either love it or can’t stand to be in the same room with it. The genre — most associated with activist lyrics, warm tones and the politics of the 1960s and ’70s (despite Jewel's chart-topping efforts in the ’90s) — is the heart of “Folk City,” the new musical that premiered last weekend from Stumptown Stages. But there's so much more of the American sonic spectrum presented in the tight, two-hour, jukebox-style show. Blues. Soul. Bluegrass. Psychedelic rock. Sunshine pop. Spirituals. Even Bette Midler.

Non-folk fans will be swept into the meticulously mined score – and the engaging lives of several New York City singer-songwriters struggling to get gigs, record contracts and airplay during the folk era.

Like the ’80s hits-fueled “Rock of Ages,” last spring's sold-out musical from Stumptown, “Folk City” takes place inside a nightclub. Instead of metal heads, preppies and hair bands, hippies, peaceniks and beatniks populate Gerde’s Folk City, an actual cabaret in Greenwich Village where Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, John Lee Hooker, Joni Mitchell and dozens more artists popped in for open mic nights from 1961 to the club’s closure in 1986.

“Folk City” is easier on the ears than “Rock of Ages,” and easier on the eyes thanks to the absence of mullets and Spandex. Based on the bestseller “Bringing It All Back Home” by Robbie Woliver, who co-owned the cabaret, “Folk City” is also keenly aware of its world and organically tied to it.

Marches for civil rights and against the Vietnam War, the Kennedy assassination, and the first ripples of second-wave feminism are dramatized through “Folk City’s” invented artists (including standout Joann Coleman as Karen) and the club staff (including Kim Vogels in a heartbreaking turn as Jazz, a waitress). “Blowin’ in the Wind,” “If I Had a Hammer,” “Down So Low,” “Light My Fire” and other renditions from “Folk City” alumni delivered by the characters, punctuate the timeline with terrific emotional force. (And it's tough to sing along while you're crying.) The song choices and their placement in the narratives couldn't be better.

“Folk City” sometimes rambles into the weeds of its own fussy musicology. It’s interesting to know that Emmylou Harris served drinks at the club. Other references to record producers, music executives and songwriters, though, come off as posturing and are probably unrecognizable to streaming-era audiophiles.

The play’s pacing is off, too. On opening night, there were several moments of dead air — nothing happening on stage and no music from the stage band. It’s likely that during the run of the show, director Kirk Mouser will find something to fill the sound of silence.

Line of the night

“Poetry spoken over music. Now that might be the next big thing,” says nightclub manager, Ernie (Steve Coker).

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Stumptown Stages' production of "Folk City" features Morgan Mallory (foreground) as Dean Graham and JoAnn Coleman as Karen Fairchild. (Photo by Paul Fardig)

Strengths

There aren't many surprises in the story crafted by Woliver and playwright Bernadette Contreras. We know the historical milestones their characters tread. Yet the script hones in naturalistically on the daily goings-on in the club, and the moments feel absolutely real.

Adding another layer of believability: Most of the actors are also instrumentalists. So watching drug-addled Dean (Morgan Mallory) progressively battle to strum his guitar and sing, for example, is especially intense.

Joan Baez, one of the biggest folk artists who performed at “Folk City,” appears in the score only incidentally. It makes you wonder if the show’s creators couldn't secure full rights to her work.

The nightclub was the proving ground not only for folk acts of the ’60s and ’70s but also for punk and New Wave artists in the ’80s. These styles aren’t represented in the musical. It’s understandable that the stage format necessitates cutting acts. Still, how great would it have been to hear a character crank out an Elvis Costello number?